A popular transporter for work stations utilizes an elongated belt that moves at a continuous high rate of speed for moving articles or baskets of articles from an end of the belt to an appropriate work station. When that particular work station has completed its operation on the article or articles, they are returned to the beginning of the belt or transported to a different work station for the next succeeding operation to be performed on them. The article or articles are placed on the belt at each station, and they are removed from the belt to a succeeding work station by various means such as by an arm that extends across the belt at an intercepting angle to divert the article from the belt to the work station. Diverting arms, however, suffer certain inherent disadvantages such as their inability to power an article back onto a central moving belt from the work station surface, as well as the fact that swing arms require a substantial free area to enable the arm to make its necessary arc of travel during the removal cycle.
There have been attempts made in the past to provide deflectors or removal devices, while eliminating the diverting arm concept. For example, Bosch and Rapistan teach powered deflector devices but in each instance, motors and various actuating means are incorporated in the deflector devices to move the transported articles. Such devices simply add to the complexity of an already complex system and when multiple work stations are provided in a typical transporter assembly, it is not unreasonable to assume that motor failure and a resultant system shut-down would be a common experience.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an improved article deflector or removal device which eliminates the need of a swing arm assembly and yet does not unnecessarily add to the complexity of the overall system.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an article deflector or removal device which is capable of moving the article to and from a work station as well as between moving conveyors which does not require the use of any motors or complex gearing.